Modal title

Multilingual Children

Forum

We encourage you to talk back! Expert advice is nice, but we all love to hear what other parents are doing. So, don’t just ask questions but share your own experience, thoughts, ideas, tips and examples.

Need some advice...
My husband and I are raising our three year old son in English (my husbands mother tongue) and Dutch (my mother tongue). Our son understands bith languages but always speaks Dutch. A conversation with his dad is therefore always partly in both languages (because my husband understands Dutch he will let our boy speak Dutch but reply in English himself). Any ideas on how to encourage our sn to speak English to him? Or should we not try to impose using English actively?
Would love to hear from anyone in a similar position...

Hi, Do you live in an english speaking community, a dutch speaking community or other? If you live in an english speaking community, I wouldn't worry, your son will realize other kids don't understand when he speaks dutch, and will eventually start speaking english once he starts preschool, or starts playing with English speaking kids. If you live in a dutch speaking community, or a community that speaks another language, the best idea would be to encourage your son to speak english at home. Games that require your child speaking in english are a good idea.

Insert Photos

Web address (URL)

Image URL

If your URL is correct, you'll see an image preview here. Large images may take a few minutes to appear.
Remember: Using others' images on the web without their permission may be bad manners, or worse, copyright infringement.